


your love is a secret i'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep

by Lysippe



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 08:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17199773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysippe/pseuds/Lysippe
Summary: Zari winces. “Okay, point taken. What about the first time you met?”That, Ava thinks, is also not one of Zari’s better suggestions, and by the look on her face, Sara seems to agree.“She insulted me and threatened to kill me.”“But the feeling was mutual, wasn’t it?” Zari’s expression has turned shit-eating, and Sara looks for all the world like she’s about to deck her.Ava, briefly, considers intervening.“Z, no,” Sara says, irritation lacing her words. “And is this seriously what you consider being helpful?”





	your love is a secret i'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roguebeachcomber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguebeachcomber/gifts).



> This was written as a prompt from roguebeachcomber on Tumblr, for "things you said that i wasn't supposed to hear." It took me a hot second to figure it out, and I'm both profoundly rusty in my Avalance writing and also not super experienced in it to begin with, but like, I tried?

“I don’t know when our anniversary is, okay?”

Sara sounds testy, and Zari looks smug, both of which are generally par for the course as far as their interactions go. But there’s something more there, something in Sara that’s a little raw and a little insecure. Ava can’t help herself. She stops just outside the kitchen, and waits. It isn’t eavesdropping, per se, if it’s an accident.

Even if it technically is.

“I thought it was guys who always forgot anniversaries,” Zari says drily. “Though I guess there isn’t a guy in your relationship to forget, so it’s good of you to pick up the slack.”

“I didn’t  _ forget _ ,” Sara says, and Ava can hear her jaw clenching even from outside the room. “We just… never discussed what we were going to call our anniversary. Like, which date. And it hasn’t exactly been the smoothest course so far.” 

Ava watches as Zari absently adjusts her low ponytail, a frown creasing her brows. “What about your first date?”

“You mean when I ghosted her because you guys crashed the Waverider into Star City?”

Yeah. Maybe not that date. Ava knew, now, what had happened, but she had been absolutely furious that night, thinking Sara had gotten her dressed up - gotten her  _ in a dress _ \- only to bail on her halfway through an outrageously expensive meal. 

It certainly wasn’t one of their better memories.

Zari winces. “Okay, point taken. What about the first time you met?”

That, Ava thinks, is also not one of Zari’s better suggestions, and by the look on her face, Sara seems to agree.

“She insulted me and threatened to kill me.”

“But the feeling was mutual, wasn’t it?” Zari’s expression has turned shit-eating, and Sara looks for all the world like she’s about to deck her.

Ava, briefly, considers intervening. 

“Z, no,” Sara says, irritation lacing her words. “And is this seriously what you consider  _ being helpful _ ?”

Zari shrugs, a little petulantly. “More helpful than your useless ass, apparently. But in my defense, you guys are pretty tight-lipped about stuff. And it’s not like I get to do a lot of dating here. And when someone attractive shows up, one of you guys always makes the first move.”

Ava files away the notable lack of pronouns in that statement for later questioning.

“No one’s fault but yours that you move slow,” Sara says, completely unapologetic.”

Zari rolls her eyes. “Do you want my help, or not?”

“Again with the assumption that you’re being helpful.”

Zari glances sharply at the doorway, and for one horrible moment, Ava thinks she’s been busted. But instead, Zari stands up, the legs of her chair screeching against the floor as she shoves it backwards with far too much force. “Cool, see you later, then. Glad we had this chat.”

“ _ Wait _ ,” Sara says, with that same weariness Ava always hears when she’s talking about Zari, but also with a hint of desperation thrown in. “I know you’re trying to help. I’m just… really bad at this whole actually caring about someone thing, you know? And worse at the showing it part.”

Zari stops, glances back at her. “Yeah, I know you are. Less biting the hand that feeds you would still be good, though.”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

Ava knows the sharpness in Sara’s voice is unintentional, that it’s instinctive when she feels backed into a corner, and she sees the exact moment where Sara realizes it, too. But Zari looks unperturbed.

“True enough,” she says, and makes her way back to the table, plopping back down with an audible  _ thud _ . “Fine. What about the first time one of you said ‘I love you’?”

Sara pales somewhat, and Ava knows, with absolute certainty, that Sara’s memories of that moment come with the same overlay of dread that her own do. “No.”

Zari, misunderstanding, groans loudly. “Oh, come on. She looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky. It’s disgusting. If you haven’t told her you love her by now,  _ I’m  _ going to have to come after you.”

“It’s not that,” Sara says, and her voice is a little softer now, a little more hesitant. “Of course we… of course I have. That day was just… complicated And not really a day I think we want to celebrate.”

Zari looks like she wants to ask more, but even she can tell that this isn’t something she should be pursuing.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” she shrugs. “You could go for the first time you had sex, I guess, but that seems kind of crass.”

Ava agrees.

“Or Valentine’s Day, and only have to celebrate one gross couple’s holiday, but that’s cheating.”

Zari is grasping at straws now, and Ava knows by the way she rolls her eyes that Sara can tell.

“Z, serious suggestions,  _ please _ ,” Sara says, and it almost sounds like she’s begging. 

“I mean I’m trying.” Zari’s voice is getting sharper, brown eyes narrowing somewhat. 

But in a flash, her expression changes, eyebrows rising and Ava can  _ see  _ the idea forming in her head. “What about the day we defeated Mallus?”

“Excuse me?” Sara looks perturbed and more than a little frustrated. 

“Well,” Zari says reasonably, “that’s the day you two got over your collective bullshit and finally made up. And unless I’m a lot less observant than I think I am, you’ve been pretty stable since then. So, why not celebrate that?”

Sara looks like she wants to argue, looks like she wants to take offense at the words  _ collective bullshit _ , at least. But she doesn’t, and Ava can’t help but think that this is the best idea any either of them have come up with so far.

Honestly, it makes sense, in that weird way that hers and Sara’s relationship does.

And to her immense relief, Sara seems to agree, however reluctantly. “Yeah, that could work. I’ll do that.”

Zari’s smirk is back. “Anything for you, Cap.”

Sara smacks her lightly on the arm, but she’s smiling now. “Thanks, Z. I’m glad you have my back.”

Ava has spent the last year watching Sara and Zari go for each other’s throats at every turn, snipping and sniping and fighting over everything they can think of. And now, she can’t help but think that she’s glad, too. For Sara, and for Zari, who has stepped up far more than she realizes since Amaya’s departure, and for the fragile, fledgling peace that they seem to have finally brokered.

**Author's Note:**

> Join me on Tumblr @ thebestdressedrebelinhistory


End file.
